Human rights lawyer Femi Falana has said that Nigeria’s failure to address internal security challenges and policy inconsistencies has left the country vulnerable to external criticism and threats, such as those recently issued by United States President Donald Trump.
Falana stated this on Wednesday while fielding questions on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.
The senior lawyer said Nigeria was “in trouble” because successive governments had ignored agreed solutions to recurring national problems, particularly insecurity and farmers–herders conflicts.
Citing political analyst Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, Falana noted that the narrative of “Christian genocide” in Nigeria had been allowed to spread unchecked in international circles due to the government’s failure to respond effectively.
He said: “According to Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, respected intellectual, this campaign of Christian genocide in Nigeria has been prosecuted for eight years without any challenge from the government. Guys are going to the US and are coming back, spreading this narrative about Christian genocide in Nigeria without any challenge.
“Have we looked at the solutions that have been preferred and agreed upon by members of the political class in Nigeria to address some of these problems?
“When Governor, now Senator Simon Lalong, was the chair of the Northern Governors’ Forum and the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu was the chair—no, when he was the chair of the Southern Governors’ Forum—at separate fora, these two organisations agreed that open grazing should be banned in Nigeria.
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“On my way to Abuja yesterday, I saw cattle on the street of Abuja on the airport road. Nigeria is the only country in the world [where this happens].
“What are the solutions that these guys have preferred? There should be ranches established in different parts of the country, where you have an enclosure for the animals to graze. People will plant grasses, some will supply water.
“How can you have a modern state, a modern state in any part of the world that allows criminal gangs to kidnap citizens and without any attempt to identify and locate them? Family members or victims of kidnapping are forced to risk huge sums of money, and then you pay ransom to bandits. How will the government allow that?
“They will use the phone of the victims to call members of their family, and the members of the families, distraught, confused, go to the police or the security agencies.
“Today, technology has advanced to the extent that wherever a phone call is made, you can locate a particular place. So what do you expect security people to do? It’s not to leave the family members to be looking for money to pay ransom. It’s to storm the hideout of the criminals and ensure that you are able to rescue victims of kidnap. So unless you do that, the business becomes very lucrative, and that is why we are in trouble.
“So we must look at this problem. Why have we brought this embarrassment to ourselves as a people, that we are being treated as a colony of the United States of America? We cannot even challenge Mr Trump. How dare you. Where is this hypocrisy coming from?”
